By Nicholas Jason Lopez “Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post. (Aired 3/7/17) Vices By Vipers – The opening video recapped the last month, aka Randy Orton’s “master plan” to sacrifice himself into The […]

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“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 3/6/17 On FITE TV)

Party Favors

– Backstage, the foursome of The Briscoes, Jay Lethal and Bobby Fish each took turns to say mean things about Bullet Club. Such insults included the outrageous labeling of them as “fake” and “t-shirt sellers.” Such daggers we got over here. Anyways, what made this memorable for us was Lethal’s labeling of their unit as “The Dream Team,” since they each targeted different BC members. Fish spoke about wanting to end ROH World Champion Adam Cole “if he chose to.” We’ll guess that Cole retained at Manhattan Mayhem?

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 2/27/17 On FITE)

Less Handshake, More Finger Break

– With the focus on Christopher Daniels and his quest to become an ROH World Champion, the opening video wasted no time to remind us of his journey, as it culminated with his defeat of Jay Briscoe in the ROH Decade Of Excellence Tournament Finals. It was all “15 years in the making,” you know. It was good to see Daniels in this kind of light, as his recent underdog gimmick makes ROH World Champion Adam Cole and his Bullet Club stand as good foils.

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 2/15/17)

Boys Among Real Men

– Hangman Page came out, his return still fresh on everyone’s minds. His opponent was in the ring in the form of Matt Sells. What a jobber name that was. Mark Briscoe was also on commentary for what it was worth. Sells was apparently in his hometown and was greeted with a shove into the ring post. One Rite Of Passage later and it was over. Post-match, Page grabbed a noose and ROH World Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks came down. Superkick party. They gestured to the stage and ROH World Champion Adam Cole/”The American Nightmare” Cody walked to the ring. Chants of “Cody”/”Welcome home” were rampant. Cody kissed the canvas and played the crowd for a too-sweet with the Champ. He got the streamer treatment and addressed the warm reception before he deceptively turned on the fans for being “11 years too late.” Great heel work as always. Crowd chanted “Dusty” at him. Cody called out Jay Lethal and referred to him as the “Doorman Of ROH.” Lethal stormed out and came onto the apron. Some taunts and saliva later, Lethal charged at Cody, which commenced a beatdown. Bobby Fish came out for the save, an apparent hype for the main event, where he/Lethal would team against Cole/Cody. More of the ROH Cavalry came down, aka Jay White/Alex Shelley/Lio Rush. Not such a bad lead-in to commercial. Apparently that tag main event was set for now. Fish weaved around Cody, but got caught flush with a superkick from Cole. The Cody/Cole dynamic was almost comparable to the now-defunct Jeri-KO. Wonder if that was on purpose. For the first time ever, a man was too-sweeted in the eyes, as Cody did it to Fish. Lethal/Cody were tagged in simultaneously and went at each other’s heads. Lethal Injection on Cole changed the momentum, but it was Cody who was legal. It came to a point where all four men were exhausted and traded forearms. Lethal hit the most underwhelming tope on Cody ever. It was almost like a light nudge. The big story laid in the finish, as Fish had Cole dead in the armbar. Cody was unable to get it broken up, so the Champ had no choice but to tap out. A smart decision, especially based on that they needed to build Fish up as a threat for that World Title shot he gets at Manhattan Mayhem on Mar. 4. Not the most enlightening of matches, but Cody was great here and Hangman does his Hangman thing.

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 2/8/17)

Taking Umbrage To The Umbrella

– The Punishment Damien Martinez/BJ Whitmer-War Machine match carried off past quarrels where a match went to the wayside for the purpose of pointless brawling. At least it gives the four something to do, as Martinez’s future’s the most to gain here. It also helped this episode that Colt Cabana was on commentary in classic boastful heel mode. We also liked the little touch that WM wore face paint. It adds to their look, albeit in a “Braveheart” way. Whitmer seems to get “go away heat” and that continued here as not much action occurred. There was a moment where Hanson performed a spot where he repetitively ran his opponents in the corner, to the point the fans did the rally cries with him. It lasted about a minute, legitimately. There were some consistent double-teams on both ends, including an impressive pop-up powerslam by WM. The finish is where things get silly again, because the four men are so into the brawl, the damn 20-count passes them right by. Countouts in ROH are just ridiculous. The only solace taken here was that Martinez/Hanson could make an intriguing singles match one day. Let’s hope they go that route.

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 2/1/17)

Battle Of The Jays

– With Wrestle Kingdom 11 on the back burner (though it aired on Jan. 4 and they’re just giving us the Ring Of Honor followup now), we had a new ROH World Champion and his name was Adam Cole… bay bay. The opening video looked back at Cole’s match with Kyle O’Reilly at WK11 and had him cut a promo over match footage about how “he” effectively concluded the story. Finally, some updated stuff. We were spinning our wheels there.

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 1/18/17)

Rebellious Mediocrity (Of Excellence)

– The Six-Man Tag between The Rebellion and Donovan Dijak/Jay White/Lio Rush was a clever followup to a previous angle where Dijak/White saved Rush when he upset Caprice Coleman in one-on-one action. Rush/White continue to impress with their athleticism. Dijak’s finally in a position where he’s free to do more in the ring as a babyface, not tied down to that senseless association with Prince Nana. Dijak easily tossed Coleman out of the ring, while it was noted that Rush wore kinesio tape to sell the left shoulder injury. Fast action on both ends as Rush avoided Rebellion’s onslaught to get a tag in to White. Rush delivered missile-like suicide dives on opposite ends of the ring. The babyface trio then did simultaneous dives to the outside on each side of the ring. Decent finish as we saw Rush hit a frog splash off Dijak’s shoulders (he’s tall so it works) followed by Dijak’s moonsault to pin Coleman. The post-match angle was more of the same, as Rebellion beat down White and teased the same to Coleman before they set him down gently (another tease for him to be recruited) before The Motor City Machine Guns came down to patrol.

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 12/21/16)

An Honored Champion

– The opening video recapped Final Battle 2016, so an immediate sigh of relief came about, since this promised new television that wasn’t a glorified repeat. The package played up the event’s biggest occurrence (no, not Broken Matt Hardy’s onscreen appearance) in Kyle O’Reilly’s big victory as he defeated Adam Cole to win the ROH World Championship. After all, the guy did it as he laid in thumbtacks. That has to be a first somewhere.

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 12/7/16)

By Honor, For Honor

– If anybody hoped for meaningful post-Final Battle television, look elsewhere. However, since already here, why not stay awhile? We’ll keep you comfortable. Anyways, the Cheeseburger/Will Ferrara-Tempura Boyz match was throwaway material, but some decent action involved. Joey “Diesel” Daddiego (The House Of Truth’s former J. Diesel) was on commentary and put over Ferrara/Cheeseburger as hard workers in the dojo. Daddiego used to come off like a mini-Batista, but now that he talked, he was like a hybrid of Taz and Nunzio. At least Cheeseburger continues to grow in popularity. That shouldn’t be hard. The guy’s freakin’ name’s Cheeseburger. Fast-paced action as you’d expect. TB hit a nice codebreaker/German suplex combo before they won with a superkick/package piledriver combo on Cheeseburger. TB seem cool, though we still don’t know much about them besides their tasty name. Cheeseburgers and Tempura. Yummy. The post-match angle with Prince Nana and Donovan Dijak continued the inevitable Nana/Dijak split, as the manager demanded his client to “get this wet” and make easy work of Ferrara. Dijak showed brief hesitation before he picked Ferrara up and slammed him down twice. That prompted Daddiego to leave the booth and confront Dijak, as he challenged him to a match. Sure, why not?

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 11/2/16)

Time To Go To Work

– Ring Of Honor’s mainstream storyline as Final Battle draws near seems to be a steady “war” between Bullet Club and ROH. It helps BC that they have the ROH World Championship (Adam Cole), the ROH World Tag Team Championships (The Young Bucks) and someone who has the ROH World Television Championship (Hangman Page) on the radar. BC made their quest for complete domination known, plus they seamlessly weaved in Page as an unhinged henchman of sorts, as his main job is to incapacitate Kyle O’Reilly (blood rival to Cole) from World Title contention, their biggest obstacle from complete ownage. The opening video looked at last week’s interaction between Cole/Page and reDRagon, as ROH World Television Champion Bobby Fish came to save his partner.